Social Media vs Traditional Media

Social Media vs Traditional Media

By Hannan Ben Slimane, Intern

Yesterday while I was looking for the latest tweets concerning social media, digital marketing and PR; I found this truly interesting infographic comparing social media and traditional media. The reason why social media today is appealing for many companies, besides the fact some use social media because it is trendy rather than a real strategic purpose, is first its low cost of investment comparing to traditional marketing campaigns (television, press, radio, etc).

Social media marketing also has flaws (yes, it does!): it might not require a lot of financial investment but it does require a lot of time. Also, social media is more difficult to measure compared to traditional marketing campaigns.

Traditional marketing campaigns can easily deliver a commercial message to a mass audience and get faster results. However, these results often stop at the end of the campaign, meaning they are usually entitled to the campaign only. Moreover, traditional marketing campaigns are particularly expensive and invasive techniques used still remain.

The infogrpahic below was published by Kuhcoon.com and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of social media and traditional media.

However, I believe that social media and traditional marketing campaigns should complement the other rather than compete. Indeed, social media is more of a long-term perspective, in a way that it is more important to maintain good relationships with actual or future clients. Whereas, traditional marketing campaigns are more adjusted for short-term goals. For instance, when a company wants to promote one specific product during a month and wants fast results, a traditional marketing campaign is most of the time the best fit.

Plus, there are way more factors that should be considered because each business has its own specificities. Indeed, some are made for social media marketing rather than traditional marketing campaigns and vice versa. I believe there is no right choice between these two; it all depends of the company’s strategic goals.